Book Reviews: French Braid; Redhead by the Side of the Road

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights library): While taking a ten-day trip to Mexico I read these two later novels by Anne Tyler. Both were very quick (about 200 pages each), enjoyable and endearing. French Braid concerns three generations of the Garret family and how their stories are inextricably intertwined like the strands of hair in the title coiffure. We begin in 2015 with two Garret cousins randomly encountering each other in a train station and then flash back to a family vacation in 1959 where the separate interests and personalities of parents Mercy and Robin and children Lily, Alice and David are established and foreshadow the paths they and the next generation will take. The Garrets appear to be unlike other families in that as they age, they grow further apart. The names of nephews and nieces are forgotten as well as phone numbers. Wedding announcements are made abruptly with no forewarning or prior introductions of the bride or groom to the family. But as they progress across the decades, the Garrets come in and out of each others' lives. One of the central strands involves Mercy who moves out of the family house to concentrate on her art work in her studio, yet remains connected to her husband Robin. As in many of Tyler's works, the small details tell so much. After moving into her studio, Mercy is asked to care for her landlord's cat. Her treatment of the cat parallels that of her attitude towards her children, but Tyler never calls attention to the metaphor.

Redhead by the Side of the Road is narrower in scope, but just as deep. The protagonist is Micah, a 40-ish bachelor living a well-regimented but limited life. He works as a freelance tech troubleshooter and an apartment-building super. His orderly world is turned upside down when the son of a former flame shows up claiming Micah is his biological father and Micah's long-time girlfriend is facing eviction but doesn't feel brave enough to drop the hint they should move in together. The story doesn't turn out quite the way you'd expect, and the characters are fully fleshed out. I loved the dynamic between Micah and his four sisters, each one a waitress and the center of a cluttered, pell-mell household. The title refers to Micah's near-sighted mistaking a fire hydrant for a small child, another subtle metaphor on Tyler's part.